Neighbors: Scholarships help students pursue dreams and agencies help others

Actors Kieran Smyth and Emma Ayres act out the final scene of the wandering play “Crisscross” inside the First National Bank and Trust during the 2012 Double Take Fringe Theater Festival.
(Recorder/David Rainville)
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The Wells Trust Scholarship recently announced this year’s recipients and I’d like to share their names, or at least where some of them are from, with you today.

Fred W. and Ethel Dow Wells were longtime residents of Franklin County who established a trust to aid students of many local towns to help continue their education. Through the couple’s generosity, scholarships have been awarded to thousands of students in Franklin County over the past 75 years.

The scholarship gave $196,300 this year to graduating seniors and full-time college students from Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Charlemont, Conway, Deerfield, Greenfield, Gill, Hawley, Heath, Leyden, Monroe, Montague, Northfield, Rowe and Shelburne.

Congratulations to all!

Also, the Ralph and Hilda Haskins scholarship went to Alexis Silk and Riley Phelps, both of Greenfield. Congratulations Alexis and Riley!

There were also monetary awards given to local agencies in the health and agricultural fields: Community Action’s WIC Program, Community Health Center, Franklin County Home Care Corp., NELCWIT and Hospice of Franklin County, all in the health field, and Franklin County Agricultural Society, Heath Agricultural Society and the Shelburne Grange.

What a wonderful way to help some of our neighbors.

DOUBLE TAKE FRINGE FESTIVAL will return in October this year to Greenfield and organizers are looking for proposals, which are due July 1.

Most of the venues where the festival will take place are restaurants and galleries, but there will be some under-used spaces included as well.

Eight short plays will be performed twice on each of two nights.

Your one-page application should provide organizers with the setting, mood, tone and world of your play, a synopsis and the running time (no longer than 45 minutes). You should also include the basics, like your name and contact information, who the director will be and the number of characters in the play.

SHELBURNE HISTORICAL SOCIETY will be holding its annual Ice Cream Social at the museum on the corner of Church and Maple streets (old Arms Academy building) in Shelburne Falls at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Shelburne Falls Military Band will play while you enjoy a 5-cent ice cream, 10-cent popcorn and 2-cent lemonade. The museum will be open during that time.

BOSWELL’S BOOKS WILL HOST local author Alfred Alcorn as he reads from and discusses his book, “Sugar Mountain,” a cautionary tale about a deadly flu epidemic that starts in China and spreads throughout the world. Call Boswell’s with any questions at 413-625-9362.

GREENFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY WILL HOLD its Summer Book Sale on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. There will be lots of great books for summer reading, as well as used DVDs and CDs and children’s books. There will be a $2 bargain.

The Summer Book Sale provides an opportunity to stock up on reading while helping Friends of the Greenfield Public Library continue to maintain the enrichment programs and services it provides.

GREENFIELD LODGE OF ELKS 1296, along with World Eye Bookshop, will sponsor a Summer Reading Fun Book Fair for children on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the lodge on Federal Street in Greenfield.

The event is being made possible in part with a grant written by Linda Gorey from the Elks National Foundation. The grant will enable children to receive a special voucher to use to buy books.

Each attendee in preschool through seniors in high school will be eligible for a voucher. Vouchers will be given to the first 200 through the door.

THERE WILL BE A TURNERS FALLS HIGH SCHOOL five-class reunion on July 11 at St. Kaz on Avenue A in Turners Falls. The classes of 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976 (my class) will be there for the informal gathering.

Light hors d’oeuvres will be served and there will be a cash bar, 50-50 raffle and other raffle items, as well as dancing to music provided by Tommy Fuentes Band, which is made up of musicians from the Class of 1974.

There will also be an individual Class of 1974 Reunion on July 12 and 13 at Millers Falls Rod & Gun Club. On July 12, there will be a picnic at the gun club from 2 to 9 p.m. and then a departure party on July 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 36 High St. in Turners Falls.

FORMER RECORDER REPORTER JAMES A. COOKE has written a book about how to prosper in the “New Normal” economy. Jim is now living in Brookfield and is editor of the magazine Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Supply Chain Quarterly. His book is titled “Protean Supply Chains: Ten Dynamics of Supply and Demand Alignment.”

Jim worked as a reporter for The Recorder from 1980 to 1982. He has been writing and reporting on global business and technology trends for more than 30 years.

The book was published by Wiley, for those of you who plan to go out and get a copy.

THE GREENFIELD FAMILY MOOSE CENTER recently had four area high school students compete in the Massachusetts-Rhode Island Association competition at the Statehouse in Boston: Rachael Clark from Athol, Helene Kasper and Nicholas Oszewski from Frontier and Courtney Kimball from Greenfield all competed. Courtney took third place and so is going on to the nationals in Gettysburg.

Each received $100 from the Moose and Courtney received an additional $500 for her trip to Gettysburg.

Congratulations to all!

For more information, call Karen Collins at 413-863-0265. To contact Anita Fritz, a staff reporter at The Recorder, send an email to: franklincountyneighbors@gmail.com or call 413-772-0261, ext. 280. You can also reach Anita on Facebook at Anita’s Neighbors. Information to be included in Neighbors may also be sent to: neighbors@recorder.com up to noon two days before you want it to run.